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For those struggling with standing BHS, I will have them stand tall, then swing down and squat-then pause with a spotter supporting them. At this point, they should not be able to stand back up. You should slightly fall back into your BHS as you jump. Often, the connection from round-off to...

I second this. The "cheese" mat is invaluable for BHS. I also agree that there is no perfect replacement for spotting (I'm increasingly thankful that my body is holding up after 20 years!) We will typically do stations in our beginner classes where they go over the boulder, down the cheese...

Depends where you are located. In my neck of the woods (MN) most of the colleges and many of the top club and HS programs will hold camps in the summer. Any camp you can work alongside seasoned coaches will help you gain experience. I had to learn quick, fast and in a hurry after being...

There are a ton of drills and tricks to help solve nervousness going backwards and on the beam. JBS has covered it well! Sometimes we have to break it all the way back down to the very basics. Pretty handy that the mat tape we have on hand at the gym is about 4" wide. A strip of that on the...

Sometimes it helps gymnasts to think of it as "falling" to the high bar instead of jumping (as long as they are tall enough that they don't need to actually jump much!) When young gymnasts jump, they will often push their chest out as the reach and look up for the bar, which will put you into...

We've had dozens of sprains over the years. With ice, rest, and PT, she should be back to doing bars in a few weeks, and full participation a couple of weeks after that. Point of advice if I may- find a PT familiar with the movements and expectations of gymnastics. I've found many orthos and...

Over the years, I've told kids that letting go of the bar might be one of the hardest things they do in gymnastics. It involves everything from your gripped fingers to your tapped and pointed toes. Speed, body shape, spatial awareness, angle of the wrists, and timing must all be right...

At this point, you can't coach your kids in MN outside of season or summer waiver period. Sounds like changes are in the works in that department unless we can find more coaches/spotters-especially outstate.

They make me nervous just looking at the picture... Takes away your feel for the proper tightness. What happens as the cable and plates start to wear? Give me old-school tighteners any day.

I would consider them relatively rare, but they can happen. We typically have between 25 and 35 kids on JV and Varsity each year. In 20 years of coaching, we've had 5 knee injuries that required significant surgery, and (to my knowledge) 3 broken arms-and two of those were the same kid. The...

Some skills require more strength, some require more body control and timing. You will see different kids excelling at different events and skills early on. Eventually, strength will become more important, and you will see kids with both start to pull ahead. I wouldn't worry too much about...

I asked a few of my kids (hair is not exactly my forte!) they said braids are the most foolproof way to avoid hair conflicts on back extension and dive rolls.

100 Times this!! Coaches and judges love having a room to get away for a few minutes with food and beverages (you can't stock enough Diet Coke for gymnastics coaches). Kids have their own things they love (t-shirts, themes/photo opps, snacks, etc) but convincing the coaches to come back is...

They definitely prefer certain beams-typically the comp beam, but some would like one of the others. We would make them do skills on all beams. I'd constantly remind them that we don't get to choose the comp beam in other gyms...

I second this question. It is a step in the right direction. The legal stakes get higher (for the perpetrators and for the gym) if an abuser is 18 or older-whether a coach or an athlete. Seems like a logical threshold for taking a course like this.

Coaching in the high school, I get to take a battery of similar trainings every single year-to the tune of 2 to 3 hours. Abuse, bullying, concussions, CPR, emergency response plan, blood borne, etc, etc. After 20 years, it does get annoying. That being said, I clearly understand the rationale...

I feel this quote to my bones…. I’m trying to retire for the third time! So far, lack of spotters in the area has drug me back into gyms just as much as any other summer.

Like I said, many were on club teams and came over for a variety of reasons. Others work their way up through our rec programs and spend hundreds of hours a year with us from the time they are in pre-school. One big difference for us is that kids can specialize- they could compete a level 9...

I hate to be the bearer of bad news... I know you may not feel like you're pestering them constantly, but it sounds like they may feel that way. It can be challenging to give constant feedback to parents, especially with very young gymnasts and/or very young coaches. As a parent, I know how...

It does depend on the state. I coach in MN and our High School League gymnastics is pretty strong. Not uncommon for kids to be recruited (especially D3) out of the top programs. Some schools are more rigorous than others, but it is generally less structured than USGA programs-without the...